Mobile native Tee Martin enjoys working for Kentucky's Joker Phillips

As one of the latest additions to new Kentucky coach Joker Phillips' staff, Tee Martin had a lot of ground to cover this spring. The Wildcats' receivers coach is in charge of recruiting New Orleans, Atlanta, South Carolina and southern Alabama.

He's logged a lot of miles, watched a lot of practices and film, and stayed in a lot of hotels. But his routine is a bit different when he comes to Mobile.

"When I come home, I don't have to get a hotel room," Martin laughed. "I stay at my grandmother's house."

Martin, a former Williamson High star quarterback who led Tennessee to a national title in 1998, still has plenty of family in Mobile -- most of it, in fact, aside from his mother, who now lives in Atlanta. He also sees plenty of talent he'd like to lure to the Bluegrass State.

"Growing up and playing high school football there, it's always been a place that's rich with talent," Martin said. "Not only that, but it's rich with tradition. ... When you talk about a small place, per capita, with what they produce, I would put Mobile up there as one of the top places in the country as far as talent."

After leaving Tennessee, Martin spent three years in the NFL with Pittsburgh and Oakland, one year with NFL Europe's Rhein Fire and two years with the Canadian Football League's Winnepeg Blue Bombers before getting into coaching. He coached at Morehouse College and a couple of high schools in the Atlanta area before going to New Mexico as a quarterbacks coach in 1999, then joined Phillips at UK.

Martin credited several coaches with being positive influences on his career -- Curtis Horton, his coach at Williamson; Henry Pugh, his park ball coach at Navco Park; and Woody McCorvey and Randy Sanders, who were offensive assistants at Tennessee when he played there (Sanders is now Kentucky's offensive coordinator).

Now he's excited about working for Phillips, whom Martin describes as energetic and full of new ideas.

"He doesn't have a head-coaching complex," Martin said. "His door is always open. He has new ideas, he's fresh and he listens.

"It's something that's started to permeate our program already."

Of course, coaching at the highest level of college football means fighting for players against some of the best recruiters in the nation, and that means putting in a lot of hours on the road. Just this week, Martin has been to Mobile, New Orleans, Atlanta and South Carolina. He spent the weekend watching spring games in the Mobile area, then landed a commitment from Theodore receiver Darien Thomas on Monday.

"He is the most down to earth person I've ever met," Thomas said of Martin. "I feel like I can talk to him about anything."

Martin said he's happy to be back in the SEC. "I'm thankful for the opportunity to be in the best conference in college football. I'm pretty much living my dream," he said. "I'm proud to be a former Mobilian and to have this opportunity to come back again and give back what was given to me -- and that was a scholarship and an opportunity to better your life."